The present invention relates to a splash attenuator intended for use with a vehicle wheel to prevent muddy water or rain water flung from a tire from being sprayed and splashed by deflection when it impinges upon a tire housing.
Various types of splash attenuators are known. A typical one is shown in Roberts et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,861.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show the vehicle wheel spray collector disclosed in the Robert et al., U.S. patent. A shield 200 is provided inside a fender 100 and faces a front wheel 101. The shield 200 has formed therein a plurality of apertures 102 through which rain water or the like flung from the wheel 101 is passed. The shield 200 and fender 100 are spaced from each other. A plurality of troughs 103 is formed between adjacent apertures 102. The spray collected in troughs 103 flows into a runoff gutter 104 provided beneath the forward end of the shield. The runoff gutter 104 is inclined to dump the collected water. Also, another inclined runoff gutter 105 is provided beneath the rear end of the shield 200 to dump the collected rain water. There is provided a flange 106 at the boundary between a trough 103 and an aperture 102. The rain water collected in the trough 103 surrounded by the flange 106 cannot easily return into the aperture 102 because of the surrounding flange.
In this conventional spray collector, the ratio of the whole opening area of the troughs 103 to the total surface area of the shield 200 is small, so that rain water is also flung from the wheel 101 against other surface in addition is the troughs 103. In other words, the amount of rain water flung against the shield 200 is larger than that of the rain water passed through the shield 200, and so rain water is deflected and sprayed from the shield 200. A spray collector using such a shield 200 thus cannot satisfactorily perform its function.